According to newspaper reports Victorian Labor Premier Ben Carroll has come under fire recently because of his habit of taking afternoon ‘naps.’
Apparently, he becomes unavailable for work each afternoon and is ‘not to be disturbed.’
People identified in the newspaper only as ‘internal whistleblowers’ says he has been taking regular hour-long afternoon naps, with staff being warned not to disturb him.
Well, before we look at this odd little word ‘nap’—is this a bad thing?
Or could it possibly even be a good thing?
Bear in mind that Winston Churchill took regular afternoon naps—and he won the Second World War!
And President Ronald Reagan also took regular afternoon napes—and he won the Cold War!
However, both of those two gentlemen were noticeably older than Ben Carroll.
By my calculations the Victorian Premier is now only 51 years old.
Do 51-year-olds need regular afternoon naps?
I think not.
If he were 71 years old now, that might be a different thing.
Anyway, the Victorian people will pass their own judgement on Carroll and his Labor government on 20 November.
In the meantime, we can take a look at ‘nap.’
It is a very odd word for a small sleep, isn’t it?
The problem is that it is almost impossible to find out its source.
The reason for that it because it is so old.
‘Nap’ was part of Old English more than a thousand years ago—with the same meaning that it has today.
The Oxford English Dictionary has found examples of ‘nap’ in an ancient psalter (translation of the book of psalms) written in the Mercian dialect of Old English, and there is evidence of King Alfred having used the word.
There are related words in other old Germanic language—Old High German and Middle High German.
And once we get back to the Germanic sources of English, we come to a dead end and can go no further.
So that’s all we can find out.
Happy napping!
Tonight I will join Peta Credlin on News24 for 'Words Matter.'
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